It takes a Queen to tame a Dragon, or not?
by HellsPumpkin
Summary: Clarisse Renaldi wants to improve her image with an article in Runway. Miranda Priestly wants the prestige of interviewing royalty. Too bad they hate each other. Or do they? Enemies to lovers trope.
1. Day One

The car stopped just in front of the stone stairs that ended before the door that would take Miranda Priestly to a higher level, if that was even possible. She didn't stop to admire the views of the garden, nor the beautiful fountain that adorned the middle of the large courtyard, not even the impressive façade that stood before her. No. She merely lifted her glance above her sunglasses when a uniformed man opened the car door for her, scanning his imposed outfit with boredom while she stepped out of her seat. A blonde woman hurried towards her, smiling, as soon as she was out of the car.

"Welcome, Mrs Priestly. Her Majesty is occupied at the moment, but I will show you your suite meanwhile, if you follow me." Said the woman, accompanying her words with a gesture for Miranda to follow her.

"And you are?" Asked the chief editor in her characteristic quiet voice.

"I'm Charlotte Kutaway, ma'am. Her Majesty's secretary. If you need anything during your stay here you can ask me." Said Charlotte while guiding Miranda through long and luxurious corridors towards their destination, in the suites wing.

She kept talking about how rare was that Her Majesty had accepted the interview and photoshoot, given her private tendencies, but Miranda wasn't listening anymore. She was already imagining the article in her head. She had to get the perfect picture for the front page, and she wasn't going to conform with less than that. Her thoughts were interrupted when the blonde woman opened the highly adorned doors that led to her suite.

"Your personal belongings will be transferred to this suite. The clothes for the photoshoots were already put in the room next to this one, for your comfort. That way you won't have to walk through all the palace if you want to work. Also, your assistant and your associate are in this same corridor, to facilitate things." Charlotte turned her head to look at her, waiting for her to say 'thanks', or at least something that indicated that she had heard what Charlotte had been saying. She merely nodded her head in an almost imperceptible way. The secretary sighed internally, bracing herself for what was about to come. She had heard about the infamous reputation of the Dragon Lady and was not looking forward to enduring her during the next five days that were arranged for the interview and the photoshoots to take place. But the only thing she hoped for more than anything was that Miranda had the common sense of behaving herself in front of the Queen. Otherwise… No. She didn't dare think what would happen if those two got on each other's nerves.

"Are you going to show me that room anytime soon?" Asked Miranda, tasting each word in her mouth as they left her throat. "I'm planning on starting now, you may not believe it but this is hard work."

"Of course, ma'am." Charlotte smiled, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. She walked out of the suite and into the corridor, encountering Her Majesty Queen Clarisse, who was headed towards Miranda's suite to greet her. "Her Majesty, this is Miranda Priestly. She will be in charge of the interview and the photoshoots."

"Welcome to Genovia, Mrs Priestly. I hope that you can forgive me for not greeting you personally when you arrived, but I could not escape Parliament." Smiled Clarisse as she tended her hand to shake Miranda's.

"Of course, Your Majesty. First things first." Agreed Miranda, offering a small smile.

"Where are your partners? I thought you weren't coming alone."

"I am not. They are in the city, doing some last-minute shopping. They should be here in a couple of hours." Assured Miranda looking at her clock.

"Well, in that case we better get busy in the meantime. I can show you the gardens, they are truly beautiful. Besides, I prefer that we begin to know each other before we start with all this." Said Clarisse, referring to the agreement she had reached with the magazine.

Charlotte breathed again. It had gone well, it seemed. 'Maybe this isn't going to be so bad and Miranda Priestly won't cross the queen.' She thought to herself.

Little did she know.

Both women went back inside after having spent the afternoon walking through the gardens, speaking about their jobs and lives and reflecting on their expectations of the work at hand. They had just crossed the French doors when Charlotte informed them that Nigel and Emily had already arrived and were waiting for them in the improvised closet-office next to Miranda's room.

"I will see you in an hour for dinner, I hope you like the chef's specialty." The queen smiled and excused herself after the brief introduction. When she was out of earshot, already in the corridor, she spoke. "I don't like her. She's an egotistic woman, full of herself, unempathetic, disrespectful… I can think of more insults to describe her, but I am certain she would take them as compliments." Spat Clarisse with a grimace of disgust before a shocked Charlotte.

"I don't like her." Said Miranda the moment the queen stepped out of the room. Nigel lifted his eyebrows at the comment but did not speak. He knew she wasn't finished. "She's too… nice. Didn't they call her the Ice Queen? Well, I was expecting some of that. Some… I don't know, something interesting. But she's just ordinary. This is a disappointment and a waste of _my_ time. We better do something about it."


	2. ATTENTION!

-ATTENTION!-

I've tried to post the second and third chapters (as well as the new one) without the HTML and at first it appears all right but then it goes back to showing all the HTML code. Since I am uploading this to Archive of Our Own as well, then I think the wisest thing is for you to read it there (it's open to everyone), because I don't see the way to fix this.

Since I can't post the link (they will remove part of the url) I can only tell you to search in the Archive of Our Own page. The title is the same (It takes a Queen to tame a Dragon, or not?) and it will come out right away.

I'm really sorry for all of this, I hope you will enjoy the story there.


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